This report is part of a series produced by Amnesty International, Oxfam, and IANSA (International Action Network on Small Arms). It argues that the arms trade has become more ‘globalised’, with weapons assembled using components from around the world.

A Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) presentation on cluster munitions which argues that cluster munitions are the conventional weapon system most in need of specific new international regulation.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has updated its informational chart outlining the elements necessary for reducing the civilian harm of cluster munitions. It includes an overview of twelve cluster munitions which are among the most widely used.

George Perkovich, an expert on India’s nuclear program, says the U.S. goal of trying to reach an accommodation with India over its nuclear energy program was a good one. But he says details in the draft accord, now being worked on in advance of President Bush’s arrival in India next week, were “very under-cooked and not well-considered.”

“The American people's friendship with the people of Asia is stronger than at any time in our nation's relatively young history. Over the past few decades, the nations of the Asia-Pacific region have become some of the world's fastest-growing centers for opportunity, prosperity and knowledge. The challenges in the Pacific region are considerable, but behind the challenges is an abundance of opportunity.”

The Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Protocol) was adopted on May 31, 2001 and entered into force on July 3, 2005. The protocol "supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2000 (the Convention). Its purpose is to strengthen and unify international cooperation and to develop cohesive mechanisms to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition (firearms)."